On management.

Yesterday I did the usual tidying-up at the weekend, and now that I've gotten some perspective on the issue, getting on with it is much, much easier. Having a proper house to clean is a big bother; I did that for more than three months in Malaysia, and it wasn't fun. As part of my regular life over in the States, I only have one bedroom to straighten out, and just one living room to dust and mop. As for the bathroom, the biggest chore used to be cleaning the bathtub, which I'd scrub on my hands and knees. But lately I've wisened up and am using a spray that dissolves the soap scum and what not, so all I really do is wipe and rinse. The kitchen is easy to handle because it's not very large. And thank god there's no driveway to sweep, or trees to water. Added to that, Hooman is extremely tidy and clean so I barely need to do much anyway.

At the end of last year, I'd sorted through the books and gotten rid of the pulp fiction (bye bye zodiac detective novels -- Ashes in Aries, Murder in Scorpio), and the bookcase became more manageable as a result. But since then, the books are piling up again and I don't know what else to do. I've started borrowing books from the library and from friends instead of owning them outright, and that's helping a little bit. Hooman just reads articles now, and that helps too. But until someone invents book-goggles, where you can upload digital books onto your face, there will always be the issue of where to store all those words!

We rent a 5 x 5 in a nearby storage facility where we've put some of our clothes, shoes, furniture, posters, paintings and other knick-knacks that won't fit here. But really what we need is less stuff.